Diving - Aldora Divers. Can't say anough about Aldora. Not all of us are SCUBA Gods that can get 90 minutes at 90 feet on an AL80. Aldora uses high pressure steel tanks (they supply DIN adapters if you don' have one) and all divers are on computers (again supplied if ou don't have one.) This resulted in no dives of less than 58 minutes and our last dive was Santa Rosa at 90 feet for 91 minutes. The limit on dive times is the computer and he air consumption of the worst air hog in the group After the firs day, we were split in to two groups where one group was very experienced divers and the other was new divers and air hogs. We were limited the first day by he fact that the hurricane had just passed through the prior day and the harbor was closed to smaller boats so they had to rent a larger (and slower) boat. They have very fast six packs so the boat ride is short. They do a standard two-hour SI between dives at Play del Sol so you can have lunch, rent a wave rider, snorkel, or whatever for a couple of hours. Avoid the Playa del Sol burger. A crunchy burger with cheese and a slab of ham. Very unappetizing. Other than that, the food was not bad. No great either, but easy.
Dive Sites:
La Ceiba - Shore dive - night
Max Depth - 32 FSW Water temp - 83 F Viz - Night Time - 20 minutes (blew an O-ring)
OK night dive til I heard bubbles in my ear from an o-ring. Octopus, sharp-tailed eel, drum, goat fish. A shor dive but nice
Santa Rosa Wall
Max Depth - 87 FSW Water temp - 83 F Viz - Unlimited Time - 58 day 1 and 91 day 3
Santa Rosa is Santa Rosa. Still a nice dive with lots of fish but way too many divers. Since we did this as our second dive of the day (most shops do it first) there were fewer people around and therefore more fish.
Colombia Deep
Max Depth - 103 FSW Water temp - 84 F Viz - Unlimited Time - 69
This may be my personal favorite dive in Cozumel. Spectacular coral, swim throughs, and lots of critters.
Only bad thing was that the Nikonos RS flooded. $1500 later, it should be back any time now.
Punta Dahlila
Max Depth - 70 FSW Water Temp - 83 F Viz - unlimited Time - 72
A pretty reef with lots of fish including some big barracuda and a ray as well as the ubiquitous groupers. My Cochran Nemesis said 70 feet. My Hyper Aqualand and DC11 both said 85 feet. My buddies computer said 86 feet.
Colombia Shallows - night
Max Depth 32 FSW Water Temp - 83F Viz - night Time - 87
Great night dive and me with no camera. Lot of crabs and octopi. Saw a reef crab about 4 feet across.
Palancar (all of it)
Max Depth 79 FSW Water Temp - 83F Viz - unlimited Time - 77
Went in on Palancar Caves and went past Palancar Horseshoe, Palancar Caves, and did our safety stop over Punta Dahlila. Great dive. Large moray that came out to play. First time with a video camera. Came out OK but not great. Something new to be explored.
Food:
Food is cheap. We had breakfast each day at the fajita factory across the street from La Ceiba for about $3 per person. The grill at the hotel is OK for lunch but wander around the town and you will be accosted by people wanting to feed you good meals at ridiculously low prices.
chuck@chopf.com send some E-mail to Chuck
©1995 Construction started on Sep. 20, 1996 by the MadMonk